Wednesday, April 20, 2016

1. For no good reason, I rarely stay home all day and read a book. I always feel compelled to go out and do something -- shop for groceries, go on a photo stroll, run errands, something, you know, to feel useful. Well, today, I stayed home and continued to read David Simon's Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and I kept thinking about the month I spent serving on Lane County's Grand Jury where I heard testimony day after day from police officers and detectives and where I saw the members of the District Attorney's office wading through their overwhelming workload. The book has also had me thinking about the documentaries I've watched and the reading I've done about public defenders, other defense attorneys, and, in addition, the Innocence Project. Tonight I read articles about the aggressive and abusive tactics practiced by the police in D. C. and I'm keeping an eye on journalists Wesley Lowery and Ryan Reilly's trespass case from when they were arrested in Ferguson, MO at a McDonald's. It's unresolved. It's hard to believe that prosecutors are pursuing it so aggressively. I don't read about these matters all the time, but, when I do, I have to confront complexity and inherent contradictions and the co-existence of honor and abuse -- in other words, I have to read it all with the ways of seeing and understanding I have learned from Shakespeare over the years.

2. While I read, in our bedroom, where the corgis are at their quietest, I wasn't completely unproductive regarding household chores -- I got a ton of laundry done, including the blissful task of laundering our bedding and the reward was sweet when I slipped between the clean sheets and under the freshly cleaned blanket, and bedspread and felt waves of pleasure as I fell asleep.

3. Molly invited the Deke and me over for delicious pasta and sauce and cabbage salad. We learned that Hiram will be playing trombone for a weekend in May with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. If you'd like to read more about the dates and the program, just go here. The Baltimore Symphony's music director and frequent conductor, by the way, used to be the conductor of the Eugene Symphony -- some of you might remember the giddy days in Eugene when Marin Alsop conducted. I immediately wondered if Hiram would be playing under Alsop's baton, but, no. We'll see if Hiram plays with them again one day and if Alsop conducts then.